FAISALABAD: District and Sessions Judge Safdar Saleem has given seven days physical remand of three men accused of firing on the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf activists on Dec 8 in the city which claimed life of a party worker, Haq Nawaz.

Police announced the arrest of the three accused -- Ilyas alias Toti of Chak 542-GB, Tandlianwala, Hafiz Imran of D-Type Colony and Usman alias Chene of Samanabad on Friday evening.

They were produced before the judge on Saturday by the district police.

During the PTI’s Dec 8 protest in Faisalabad its activists were shot at, resulting in Haq Nawaz’s killing.

A murder case, including section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) was registered by Samanabad police against state minister for water and power Abid Sher Ali, former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah, DCO Noorul Ameen Mengal, MPA Tahir Jameel and more than 300 others on the complaint of Atta, brother of Nawaz.

Atta has nominated 48 more people through a supplementary statement, including Factory Area DSP Khalid Malik.

Abid Sher Ali and Tahir Jameel could not be included in the probe because the government was yet to constitute a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), mandatory for the cases registered under ATA.

The home department has now formed the JIT headed by SSP (investigation) Bilal Umer with officials of the counter terrorism department and special branch.

Sources said the JIT would grill the accused that who had brought them to the Novelty Bridge with weapons, how conspiracy of firing on the rally was hatched and who provided them shelter after the killing of PTI worker.

They said Pervez Jutt, the alleged handler of the armed people, had also been arrested and being interrogated by a law enforcement agency. He was arrested while trying to escape from Pakistan.

Both Imran and Ilyas are said to be the guards of Jutt who deals in real estate.

Besides, a three-member committee working under Jaranwala SP is also looking into police performance on the Novelty Bridge. SSP Bilal Umer said judge had given 7-day physical remand of the three accused.

Published in Dawn December 21th , 2014